A sisters wine & painting party

I come from a long line of backwoods people.  I tell you this to explain why there won't be any pictures with low lighting, and an instructor, or a beautiful painting.  A wine and painting party with my sisters meant drinking decent wine for awhile, then heading down to the basement to paint the yellow walls white.

The Teacher is living in my Grandma's house, helping to fix it up so it can be sold.  And a few days ago, she took the ancient iron patio table and chairs to the basement, and sprayed them purple.  They look GREAT!  But the basement floor, well, as you can see, not only is it filthy, but now it's purple in a few spots.  And the Teacher is going to have to clean the entire floor, b/c if she just cleans that one area, Dad and Mom are going to figure out something happened, and she'll get in trouble.  She'll be scoring Pinterest looking for "Paint Removal" after we leave tonight. 

Check this out!

Yep, once he gets going, he gets it done!

We had  to get this 'stuff' to put on the grout that sealed it and turned it a really dark black.

I'm pretty pleased with it.

The hot handyman is back!

AND he brought tile!

I thought we were waiting to do this!

I thought we were going to start this after the Holidays.

 Guess I was wrong.  This thing is happening now, now. 

Back to normal

With all the birthday hoopla over, we're back to school and all the everyday things.  Here is today's science experiment, a M&M Habitat.

You're supposed  learn about camouflage, b/c some colors of M&M's will be easier to find than others.  But maybe it's our love of chocolate, we found all but 2 M&M's.

I think it's time I bragged on my husband

Bry-D's part is done, well, except for putting in a new light fixture.  Is my hubby wonderful, or what?  Just as we suspected, the pedestal sink adds a lot of room-though there's pretty much no place for the towels and toys and such. 

He did a great job, didn't he?  Well, he had help.  Hmmm, maybe it would be more accurate to call them "assistants" than "help" - they weren't always helpful.  They did try to be helpful, though.  Bry-D did a great job of tolerating their "help".

I have ideas for towel storage and something to replace the medicine cabinet, and I've had some pictures ready to put up for awhile, so once that's all done I'll post some pictures of the finished room.  Now on to the next home improvement!

Hurray for power tools!!

Thanks to Pinterest, I've kept busy.  It's also helped me re-organise and clean.  Our play area desperately needed a make-over.  So, guess what I did?  I followed Pinterest to Ana White's website, and using her instructions, made these!!!!

 I am giddy with excitement over this!  I had Bry-D help me with the dress-up cabinet-it's impossible for one person to do on their own.  He liked it because he got to use power tools and I cleaned it up.

They don't look professionally made, but they are very sturdy.  I made another leaning shelf set for the kids room.  I really need to pick a color to paint them, I think that will help.  And, Bry-D is so sweet he went out and got me my very own Jigsaw!  He's so wunnerful!  (Can't wait for spell check to try and correct that word!)  I rounded all the corners myself, and I'm looking forward to my next power tool adventure- a play kitchen! 

From Grey & grey to brown & blue

Doesn't it look great?  Bry-D worked hard on it, I'm really proud of him.  However, there has been a, umm, glitch?  The tile color is "Puritan Grey" & the grout is "Slate"  Both of these look grey in the store, and most of the time he was installing it, the tile looked grey.

My mom has a great eye for color and when I sent her a picture of our grey tiles, she replied with, "Looks brown to me"  I tried not to panic and just decided it was the phone's fault.  But then he started grouting...and the tiles were indeed, brown.  And the grout was...blue?!?

 With the names, we really thought we were doing grey with a darker grey, not brown and blue, but we agreed that at this point, it's not coming out.  Fortunately, we really do like the colors, they just aren't what we had planned on.  Next he'll put the toilet in and we'll add the sink!  Yay!

Something missing

I wish I could put my finger on what it is that's missing...

 It's so much bigger in here now!

Tomorrow night, I'm taking out the trim.

That's what he said.  That's what I thought he would be doing.   But then this happened.

 That doesn't look like trim to me.  That's a toilet.  In my foyer.  Yeah, sure, c'mon over, sit on the potty and take your shoes off.  G'head, make yourself at home!

We've been together 13 years, almost 14.  You'd think I would have known that this is what "taking out the trim" would be.  The beginning of the bathroom remodel I thought we were starting next week.  I'm not upset, mostly because there isn't much point in being upset.  He can't put the toilet back in until he puts in flooring, so...yeah.  When I was in high school my parents fixed up the bathroom.  The toilet sat in front of the big picture window for weeks.  Weeks, not days, or "a" week, WEEKS.  I don't remember why, and I don't think that matters.  What matters is that the toilet sat in front of the picture window for WEEKS.  Did I mention that I was in high school?  Yes, it's possible that I'm remembering it wrong, but that event has scarred me for life.  A toilet in the picture window for WEEKS, people.  WEEKS.  And now I have one in my foyer. 

Did you know

That in a pinch, ie, no icecubes, you can use teething rings to keep your drink cool?

Going with the flow of mud

You all know how much Lex loves mud.  And if you've watched the national weather, you know that Indiana has had LOTS of rain, and that translates into MUD.  Which isn't forcasted to end anytime soon(praying the 500 doesn't get rained out).  Anytime we go outside to play, we end up muddy.  I could fight this, insisting on staying indoors, or only playing in the front yard(less mud there)  Instead, I've been trying to think of a way to embrace the mud.  Lex particularly enjoys getting his vehicles dirty, then washing them, so I'm trying to come up with a carwashing area.  Of course, I then saw something I just had to do on Meg's blog. 

Mud Pie Kitchen

Our backyard has "the best spot" corner area, where the kids have dug holes that they use for all sorts of things, from fixing soup to washing toys.

 This is where we keep our firewood in the winter.  Seems to me this is the perfect spot for our new kitchen.

I did a Goodwill run, and got a bunch of supplies, with the intention of keeping half aside in case things got broken.

Eliz was big help setting up-we used the plastic bins for water and storage, and LEx immediately adopted one to be used for washing cars.

This was how Lex helped set up.

Soup's on!  I don't know how much we'll add/subtract/change this.  I suppose as the summer goes on, it can change quite a bit.  I was weeding in the veggie garden while they cooked up a storm, and was served several delicous dishes.  We have a family project planned this weekend for the veggie garden, can't wait to show you!

I followed the links on Meg's post, which led to extreme excitement, then I did a yahoo search on mud pie kitchens and found my dream-come-true-backyard here.  Seriously you need to look around this blog!  I need to stop before I gush all over you about how much I love this woman's ideas!  I spent for-ev-er looking and reading and getting all jumpy and silly with desire to try and make and do.  'Nuff said, happy Towel Day everyone!

Mean ol' snowcoat zipper breaking during a blizzard!

All this snow, and Eliz's snowjacket is broken.  I don't have a zipper on hand that will work.

Mean and nasty broken zipper!

To the rescue!  Denim thread and a sturdy needle!

Voila!  Mommy sewed Eliz into her coat.  Sorry, Lex is really clingy from teething, so once he got up I didn't get any pictures of her in the snow.  But yes, it worked, and she's already asked me to sew her in her coat today.